Waste chutes in apartment buildings are well known. In short, a hole is provided in a wall of the building, for receiving the waste. The hole is coupled to a chute, through which the waste travels, until it reaches a bin.
A problem with such waste chutes of the prior art is that they are expensive to manufacture, and/or costly to install. In many cases, to be commercially viable, the chutes must be installed at the time the building is built.
Furthermore, there are many different configurations of bins, both within a country and around the world. For example, different sized and shaped bins are used in different municipal areas. Similarly, different types of buildings required different chute setups. As such, many different configurations need to be provided, which increases manufacturing and warehousing costs.
A further problem with waste chutes of the prior art is that they are not particularly user friendly. In particular, chutes of the prior art often get blocked as bins become full, and do not seal properly at bin, resulting in the escape of odour.
Similar problems exist for other types of chutes, such as laundry chutes and the like.
As such, there is clearly a need for an improved chute system for waste and other materials.
It will be clearly understood that, if a prior art publication is referred to herein, this reference does not constitute an admission that the publication forms part of the common general knowledge in the art in Australia or in any other country.